Accidentally Aion

Consolidation

Zeli — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:04:51 +0000

A quick update on my Aioning: I was working on a scavenger hunt list for my guild and I decided on Poeta as the location so that guildies of all levels can attend and it’s smaller so it’s a good first hunt location. Instead of using up mobs for no experience to make up my list of collectibles, I decided to get some alts through to level 10. I now have a Spiritmaster, Templar, Sorceress and almost an Assassin. I have no idea what I will do with them, but it still seems more productive than going through with my main and having nothing to show for it.

It felt really good to go get out of Poeta and grind out some Theo-Harpies on my main last night.

Anyway, The point of this post is to post a formal “moving on over” notice. You’ve probably noticed that I sometimes doublepost on Multiplaying and I’ve decided to simply consolidate the effort by writing over there.

I haven’t written much over there yet, but here’s where my list will be: http://www.multiplaying.net/author/zeli/

The Silencing of Poeta

Zeli — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:39:55 +0000

I am annoyed with Patch 1.5.0.11. Specifically:

All chat channels now have a level 10 restriction, both to join and participate.

Whispering now has a level 10 restriction.

Players can receive whispers but cannot respond below level 10.

Players cannot send in game mail until level 10.

Players cannot search for ‘who’ in game until level 10.

Players are now limited at the amount of in game mail you can send per hour.

I was frustrated with the restrictions placed at level 5, but I had thought that was a temporary fix until they had a better solution for clearing out the spammers. This new patch goes too far into the realm of punishing the innocent instead of the offenders and I’m starting to wonder if these restrictions are actually thought of as a solution and how temporary they’ll be.

I logged into an alt in Poeta last night to get a feel for new patch. That feeling is isolation. True, there was no spam, but there was also no requests or replies for help with Tutty or the Cube or legion invitations or discussion of any kind at all. Add to that my inability to who and PM my friends for an invite to the legion and this MMO felt more like a solo-play game. Being someone who enjoys helping people and the social interaction that MMOs provide, I couldn’t help but think that we, as a community, are losing more than we’re gaining with this new patch.

To add insult to injury, when I shifted back to my main and entered the Eltnen Fortress, the goldseller shopgirl was sitting in the same spot I saw her the day before with the website and price for kinah typed above her head. It only made me feel more like the problem was being hidden from new players instead of fixed.

This post can also be found at www.multiplaying.net.

Those Dusty Krall Quests

Zeli — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:26:25 +0000

Last night, a few guildies got together who had overleveled before completing their Krall campaign quest line. There were 7 of us ranging up to 31. I was the lowest level at 23. Even though a couple of us had finished the quests, we were eager to help and hang out with our friends.

At first we tried an alliance, but we quickly learned that no quest credit or quest item drops are giving when in an alliance, so we had one man stay out of the group and play alongside. With Ventrilo going, it wasn’t a big deal. At the end of the night, 3 had completed the quest line, we picked up some rations for another guildie who couldn’t make it, and I think 2 others managed to finish some regular (non-campaign) Krall quests they still had in their logs.

I was worried that people would think the evening a waste of time, but just before porting out, the highest level guy there thanked us for running the event. He explained that he had leveled so quickly beyond Krall and now was putting it off, not because of difficulty, but merely awkwardness. At his level, one guy pointed out, coming back to Krall was the equivalent of hanging around a high school long after you’ve graduated. There was miniscule experience, no loot, no kinah and we had a great time.

Decision: Subscriptionworthy

Zeli — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:27:51 +0000

The “free” month is up and the subscription starts. Many players are deciding if Aion is worth their money on a monthly basis and this is also the point when the tourists pack up and go home. I’ve already heard of great guilds and players who’ve came and went. Not all were tourists. Although some may have burned too hot too fast, others bring up legitimate gripes that cannot be ignored for the long-term success of Aion in the west. The thing people have to decide for themselves is if they are going to play while these issues are dealt with or ignored or if they even care about them at all.

Personally, I’m getting behind in my guild’s leveling curve, but that is typical of me. I keep hearing that Aion is for the hardcore, but as a casual gamer, I’m really enjoying the game and I’m looking forward to all the fun I keep hearing about that seems just around the corner. In the now, this is enough to keep me subscribed as I la-la-la (la-la-la: a blissful random singsong attitude of one unaffected by the issues others are currently experiencing) through this beautiful world.

Do not confuse my current la-la-la-ness for unawareness. Careful now, this gets a little blargy. I am unhappy with certain issues and a quick look around the internet tells me I’m not alone. The bots and goldspammers, while not affecting me directly at this point, are annoying by existing and are not being banned quickly enough. That alone is not enough to chase me off a game I enjoy, but it is for many people and then population does become an issue that will cause me to leave a game I enjoy. The inability to participate in a fortress situation is potentially gamebreaking for me when I get there (my husband and I have identical PCs so his issues are my issues and I find these things out before I get there since he levels beyond me) and I’m almost there. Since I have an interest in the whole fortress thing, I’m not sure how long I’ll be sitting on the sidelines filling my time with the other activities available at my level. I’ll think about that when I get there. I’m fickle, have a short attention span and I tend to be impatient. It all depends on how amused I am at that point in the game, but gaming with my friends is a key component to keeping me amused.

Perhaps I’ll still be enjoying the otherness in Aion when it’s all fixed, but will my friends? I realize that despite my current enjoyment, I could be approaching a ticking clock situation with my continued subscription if things remain the same. I don’t mean to convey a bunch of doomygloomy vibes. The “if” in “if things remain the same” is a huge and unlikely one. MMOs are ever changing and we’re only a month out. NCSoft has responded quickly to other issues and I’m having enough fun that it’s more than worth it to me, at this point in the game, to give them the chance to take care of these things. Let the la-la-la-ing resume.

Quitting Quests

Zeli — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:31:23 +0000

While questing last night, I realized that I don’t want to do quests. I’m sick of quests. I just want to find a spot with a friend or two, have some fun conversations while we kill lots and lots of things. I hear this is the game for that.

Multiplaying 11 is out

Zeli — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:43:47 +0000

Far too little time in game this weekend, but at least episode 11 of Multiplaying got done and I didn’t have to do the editing this time. I’ll get no Aion time tonight either, thanks to work. Crazy priorities!

FasttextIcantreadanything

Zeli — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:39:01 +0000

I was watching the text wiz by at a ridamndiculous rate while participating in the metagame that I like to call “catch a goldspammers name and block them” when I wondered, is this really a good marketing tool for the goldfarmers when the text goes by so fast that I cannot even read it? Isn’t the practice of annoying their customer-base costing them sales? I mean, it’s seriously annoying. All of the other reasons to not support goldfarmers aside, their advertising strategy alone should be enough for people not to give them money for any service they may be offering. It’s the same reason I won’t buy Mentos.

It Pays to be Clumsy

Zeli — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:47:26 +0000

The day before yesterday, I was atop Eltnen Fortress and I decided to glide down all smooth and cool-like, but my foot hit one last bit of fortress edge and it reset my flight timer and I plummeted to my death right there off the side of the fortress. For additional luck, someone who witnessed this embarrassing moment actually sent me a tell asking if I was okay. I politely explained that I didn’t need a rez and that was that… or so I thought. Yesterday I was in the same area outside the fortress while killing plumas (to get me some more coins) when I got a tell suggesting that I not die and of course it was the same gentleman. He must have decided that I was indeed an uberidiot and needed all the help I could get because he gave me two level 27 items (and I had just hit 23). So thank you Morden of Dareis Mai, for being so kind and generous to one so clumsy.

Collecting Bronze Coins

Zeli — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:56:08 +0000

I’ve just begun my adventures around Eltnen Fortress. I grabbed as many quests as I could see and headed out to work on my checklist. As I finished a few and turned them in, I realized that Ferenna had given me 11,000 experience and a Bronze Coin for completing Fortress Beasts and it was repeatable. The quest has you kill 10 Crimsontail Plumas, 13 Manduri Gatherers (which sound disturbingly like cute kittens when you fight them), and 13 Manduri Hunters. I had received an Iron Coin for a previous quest but never bothered looking into what that was for. I was fully committed to shrugging this one off as well until I grouped up with a guildie of mine, Hypnotik, who mentioned he was repeating this quest for the coins. After a couple of runs, and the addition of another guildie, Slurms, into this repeating fun, I figured I had to fess up and so I asked what the coins were for.

It turns out if you read things that NPCs say, you really learn a lot. Apparently these coins can be exchanged for rewards from certain NPC officers. Ferenna not only gives out the repeatable quest and rewards you with a coin, but also allows you to turn in coins for a mysterious random item when you collect 3 and 6 of these coins. However her items are only useable by the Warrior and Scout based classes. A few steps to the left was another NPC, I think his name was Atro, and although he did not give out the quest, he did give out items to the Priest based classes and I would assume for Mage based ones as well (but when I spoke to him he only mentioned Priest but perhaps he is smart enough to realize I am a Priest based class and therefore did not mention the other). I received a decent pair of gloves for my first 3 coins. He’ll also give out another mystery-reward when I’ve collected another 6 so I plan on doing that this evening. I’ve been told that I’m embarrassingly behind in my gear so hopefully this helps in 2 areas.

I am curious as to what I could have received with my Iron Coins had I bothered to collect them, but not enough to go back and check it out. At least I won’t be wasting the Bronze Coin opportunity and I can only assume there will be coin quests as I move on to other areas as well and, thanks to guildies who pay attention, I won’t miss out on those.

Leveling Up in Podcasting

Zeli — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:08:27 +0000

According to my blog stats, I’ve already got a couple readers. While this will be more for my Aion gaming journal, I’ve also been encouraged to share some of my entries over on Multiplaying so for those of you who read both, you may get some double-vision from time to time.

Just to keep y’all in the know, I’m also Shannon from the Multiplaying podcast. If you don’t know what that is, check the links below and give a listen (but I should warn you that it is rated “explicit”). While editing episode 10 today, I realized how odd it was that something that I started doing to enhance my gaming experience, actually keeps me out of game quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I love podcasting, but prepping for a show, recording and editing does tend to soak up the time that would otherwise be spent gaming. Thankfully I belong to a supportive group and we share these responsibilities as equally as possible which allows us all to contribute and still have our game time. Knowing how much time I spend at it, I can’t imagine how people guild lead, podcast or blog as a solo project and still have time to game, let alone participate in that whole crazy thing called life that I keep hearing so much about — which frankly sounds like I’m not missing much. I mean really, is it that big of a deal that I have never seen an episode of “Dancing with the Stars” because that’s pretty much the topic I hear nongaming people talking about during the week.

What I missed while editing today: my legion got rank 3 and our legion logo was uploaded and revealed.

Was it worth it? Let me know: